Nitrite Spike

Dmoney

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I originally posted this in the African Cichlid Forum. I have got no reply, so I am coming here for help. Here are my 2 postings. Any help would be great.

Hey Guys,

I had spent the last 3 weeks doing the fishless cycle. I watched the ammonia drop, and then I watched the Nitrite spike and then fall. I thought I had a completely cycled tank. I could add Ammonia till it would be 5ppm and within 12 hours both Ammonia and Nitrite would read zero. I added 6 fish 2 days ago. All juvenile's. My Nitrites has gone from zero to 1.5 today. My Ammonia is still reading zero, and my Nitrates are at 10 ppm. The PH is staying put at 8.0, and the temp is about 80-82 degrees. I did a 20% water change this morning, the readings were still the same tonight. I just got done doing a 50% water change. I have added 2 extra air stones as well for extra oxygen. Is there anything else I can do? What do you think the cause of this is? Thanks for your help....



I took another reading an hour and half later. The nitrites keep rising it's up to 3 now. I am baffled.....
 
well the only thing i could think of is you added too many fish too fast. you have to let the bacteria catch up to the biological load. i would just keep doing water changes until everything gets back down. What is the ammonia like? in order for you nitrites to be hight there had to be at least a trace of ammonia.
 
well the only thing i could think of is you added too many fish too fast. you have to let the bacteria catch up to the biological load. i would just keep doing water changes until everything gets back down. What is the ammonia like? in order for you nitrites to be hight there had to be at least a trace of ammonia.

The Ammonnia has continued to read at 0 ppm. No change at all.
 
I just did another 40% water change this morning. The level has dropped off a little bit. It is down from 2 to maybe 1.5. I have now done a total of 3 water changes in the last 24 hours. The level of the Nitrites ha hardly dropped at all. My nitrate level is about 8 ppm. The ammonia might have read a slight amount this morning. It was so close that it could have been 0, or it could have been .25. The PH is still 8.0, nd the temperature is right 80 degrees. The fish seem to be doing fine, although I would feel a lot better if the Nitrites would go down. I cant really think of anything else that might be causing this. I am using Aqua Safe on all water that is being added, I have had no power outage interuptions, and I have not cleaned or changed anything out in the filter. I will do another 40% water change tonight, and hopefully that will bring down the level some more. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
 
Don't feed for a few days, feed 1/4 normal for the next week. Less food in means less waste produced. This will give your bio filtration a chance to catch up.

I think that's the third time I typed that in about 10 minutes. :lol:
 
Don't feed for a few days, feed 1/4 normal for the next week. Less food in means less waste produced. This will give your bio filtration a chance to catch up.

I think that's the third time I typed that in about 10 minutes. :lol:

:lol: I was just thinking that tolak, the last few threads I've read your there with pretty much the same response, made me chuckle.
 

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